October 12, 2007

SquidSoap by Airborne

Every day I go through the same litany with my kids: “Did you make your bed?,” “Brush your teeth!” and “Wash your hands!!” I sound like a nagger, which indeed I have become. All this after promising myself as a child I would never, ever sound like my own Mom saying these exact same things. I have realized that I sound like one of those incoherent parents on Charlie Brown to my kids (Waah wah wah wah), who have strategically tuned me out. This is especially true when it comes to hand washing. While I have convinced them that wiping their hands on the back of their pants or shirt definitely does not count, left to their own devices they think a quick rinse and towel dry is just fine before meals, after going to the bathroom, or coming home after school. That is why we at Mom Central got so excited about being introduced to SquidSoap by Airborne.

To help inspire kids to wash their hands for the right amount of time, SquidSoap has designed a great soap dispenser with a vegetable dye stamp. When children press the ink stamp in order to dispense soap, their hand is "inked." It takes 20 seconds of scrubbing to wash the dot off, the time recommended by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention for kids to wash their hands. It becomes a fun activity, as kids race to make the dot disappear. Each SquidSoap by Airborne comes with an orange, green or purple plastic squid, and the soap has a great citrus smell.

Here's a quick visual of how SquidSoap works:

So SquidSoap now serves as the neutral referee on whether kids’ hands are well-washed: if the ink spot is gone, high-five. And if the ink spot remains, then back to the sink they dash…although this has not happened so far with my kids. Now only if SquidSoap could get them to make their beds…